Chapter (Eleien 



SLEDGING EQUIPMENT, PONIES AND DOGS 

 T the commencement of this narrative I gave some 



general information regarding our equipment and 

 provisioning, but it will now be necessary to describe 

 more fully the sledging outfits used by the various expedi- 

 tions that left our winter quarters. The first, and one 

 of the most important of the items was, of course, the 

 sledge, though, indeed, everything taken on a sledge 

 journey is absolutely essential; one does not load up 

 odds and ends on the chance of their proving useful, 

 for the utmost reduction of weight compatible with 

 efficiency is the first and last thing for the polar 

 explorer to aim at. The sledge which we used is the 

 outcome of the experience of many former explorers, 

 but it is chiefly due to Nansen that it has become the 

 very useful vehicle that it is at the present day. On 

 the Discovery expedition we had sledges of various 

 lengths, seven feet, nine feet, eleven feet and twelve 

 feet. Our experience on that occasion showed that the 

 eleven-foot sledge was the best for all-round use, but 

 I had taken with me a certain number of twelve-foot 

 sledges as being possibly more suitable for pony traction. 

 A good sledge for Antarctic or Arctic travelling must be 

 rigid in its upright and cross-bars, and yet give to 

 uneven surfaces, so that in travelling over sastrugi 

 the strain will not come on the whole of the sledge. A 

 well-constructed sledge, travelling over an uneven surface, 

 appears to have an undulating, snake-like movement, and 

 the attainment of this suppleness without interfering 



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